YouTube Marketing Predictions for 2017 From the Pros

Are you wondering how marketing on YouTube will change in 2017? As the importance of video continues to grow, many marketers are watching to see if YouTube will keep pace in 2017. To find out where YouTube may be heading in the coming year, we reached out to social media pros to get their thoughts.

YouTube Explores Long-form Television-style Content

In 2017, YouTube will evolve to maintain its strategic position as a video platform that’s the second-largest search engine.

To increase revenues, YouTube will tap into Google’s treasure trove of data to test production and marketing of longer-format television-type series. This competitive move is in response to the rise of original series creations by Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

YouTube Channels Embrace Quality Over Quantity

For a long time, the trend on YouTube was to create more content in hopes of building subscribers and views. Now, businesses are smarter and realize that making less content with quality keywords will give them a bigger ROI.

I anticipate 2017 will be the year we see an increase in educational content from businesses on YouTube, as that will give them the best chance of appearing in search and attracting a larger scale of potential customers.

YouTube Integrates Third-party Software to Improve Broadcast Quality

I predict YouTube will seek to acquire a third-party encoding software company like Telestream (which makes Wirecast), Switcher Studio, or Livestream.com (which develops software and hardware). When this happens, it will be easier and more affordable for us to produce high-quality, highly engaging video content for our fans and subscribers.

YouTube Marketers Focus on Educational Content Delivery

As video continues to spread across social media channels, we’ll see videos on YouTube continue to become more meaty and robust.

Instead of the 30-second video demos of recipes that have taken over Facebook, success on YouTube will require companies to create 1- to 5-minute in-depth demos, courses, and series that answer the viewers’ questions (some of which they may not have even known to ask).